CitiusTech sets up Healthcare Innovation Fund with SINE

The fund was set up last year as a part of the company’s mandated CSR spendPriyanka Sangani | ET Bureau | Updated: December 01, 2016, 17:00 IST

Healthcare technology company Citius Tech has launched a Healthcare Innovation Fund in collaboration with SINE-- IITs Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. The fund was set up last year as a part of the company’s mandated CSR spend.

Rizwan Koita, CEO, Citius Tech told ET that the company wanted to do more than just put up some money as part of the mandatory CSR under the government policy. “We reached out to SINE and helped them create a healthcare innovation fund to invest in innovative ventures in healthcare and healthtech,” he said.

To start with, this is a five year commitment with an increasing annual contribution which could be extended at the end of the initial five year period. While he declined to share the exact amount that the company had invested in the fund, he said that in the first year, the fund has invested in four companies.

The final decision on what startups are selected rests with SINE, while Citius Tech executives would step in as mentors as and when needed. Koita also sees this a way to evangelise the idea of enterprise startups to students on campus, who typically are more exposed to consumer facing businesses.

“Students don’t often have perspective on entrepreneurship opportunities in the healthtech space or on the enterprise side, and this is a way to boost healthcare innovation on campus,” he said. The four companies invested in are CareNx, a remote monitoring tool to detect high risk pregnancies earlier, Transpact, which makes a therapeutic product for children with cerebral palsy, Medprime Technologies, a medical devices startup and InceptorTechnologies, a low cost digital Braille reader.

If the model proves viable, this could be another way for companies to collaborate with institutes like IIT and help set up similar ventures in other sectors as well, Koita said.